How do I say?
by Cariel
Summary: personally Cho Chang, after Cedric's passing... Does Harry have a chance now? Some Chinese in it...bare with me^^
1. How Do I Say?

Cho Chang's parents never knew about Cedric…but her mother had her suspicions. When confronted about it, she kept replying, "We're just friends." But when she saw how her daughter reacted at his death, she knew there was something between them that had been more than 'just friends'. Well, it didn't matter anymore, because he was dead.

Another worry out of the picture.

At least that's what Cho's mother thought. 

Cho wasn't excited about the new school year. She'd have to pretend to be like normal. Pretend to be excited about Quidditch…excited to be a Prefect… But it wasn't the same anymore. Her façade of happiness only added to her sorrow inside which she couldn't show anyone.

She was good at hiding her feelings. She'd done so all her life. Cedric had been the first person she really started to open up to and in that respect, they _had_ been more than just friends. No, she hadn't allowed herself to fall in love with him. She knew her parents would rather have her marry a nice Chinese boy. Heck, they'd rather have her marry any Asian boy instead of a Caucasian one.

It wasn't her fault she didn't look at people by their race. She just saw the person for who they were on the inside.

"我不知道為什麼… Why is it so hard!" she thought aloud to herself. She sighed and flopped onto her bed. She was glad to have a room to herself this year. She could finally have privacy and express her feelings to the blank walls of her dorm. 

A/N: I had a comment about it having Chinese, so I'm just going to have a translation or not have any Chinese. The above is just Cho's thoughts with English and Chinese mixing together just like mine do- so if you think it's weird, don't mind me.

I think it's good to have everyone able to understand too. Thanks for your comments!


	2. For Future Reference

It was odd idea that crept into Harry's mind as he sat staring at Cho during lunch. Ron and Hermione had given up on having a normal conversation with him. 

"Just go over and talk to her already," Hermione insisted, "Not worse than facing Malfoy on a bad day. She's nice you know."

"I know," Harry replied, "I just- I mean, she's so popular and I'm-"

"You have your own bloody fan club, Harry," Ron pointed out as if he didn't know. "Do I have to push you?"

Harry shook his head. He wanted to talk to her. He could tell there was something wrong in the way that her smile faded so quickly after her friends turned away to talk to someone else. The smile returned when they faced her again, but it disappeared just as quickly when she thought no one was looking, but Harry was. Harry noticed.   

Somehow, the strange notion Harry had in his head was surfacing. He would try to learn some Chinese as an icebreaker. Maybe one day he'd be knowledgeable enough that they could have secret conversations? He shook his head like an idiot. 

What was he thinking? Sure, he could speak parseltongue, but that took no effort whatsoever on his part. Learning another language from books was another. Then again, that kind of studying wouldn't be frowned upon during the summer when he was with the Dursley's. 

He found a rather worn book titled, "Ways With Words: Internationally Renowned Witch's Guide to Foreign Tongues" He flipped it open and looked through the Asian Languages section. "Interesting…" he thought as he glanced over the Hiragana and Katakana filled pages in the Japanese section. "That's got to be bloody hard to learn. Three different alphabets…unbelievable…"

Finally he got to the Chinese section where he read that there were many different dialects. "Well sod this! How am I supposed to know which dialect she speaks…" Cantonese? Mandarin? Taiwanese? Hakka? Hokkien? Pinghua? Jin? His head was spinning. He supposed he should just ask someone…one of her good friends. But first, he took the book back to his room for future reference.


	3. Mortifying Arithmancy

A/N: I know it started out really dark, but this is a shippy fic and my promise of shippiness will come through eventually. You just have to stick with me -_~

Cho needed to escape the cliquey-ness of her fellow Ravenclaw students, so she took her homework to the main study room. After mulling over high-placement arithmancy, she found herself daydreaming. 

In her daydreams, she saw Ravenclaw defeating Gryiffindor for house cup this year, winning Quidditch, and then flying on her broom along with her was…Oliver Wood??! Why?? He graduated last year, why would he be flying in their game?

Her thoughts shifted to the classes she was getting the best grades in and then the Yule Ball and Cedric… She willingly smacked the side of her face. 

No. She mustn't be thinking about him. She saw the gleam in his eyes as they danced. She smacked her face again. People were looking at her like she was possessed or under some selfviolancé spell. At least her preoccupation with 'what other people would think' stopped her from thinking about Cedric.

"You all right there, Cho?" Padma asked her quietly.

"Yeah," she answered.

Padma was still staring at her, but she put her nose into her book and hoped she'd just leave her alone. "Aiya…" she exhaled. This arithmancy problem had to be done by long hand and then rechecked. Why had she chosen advanced placement arithmancy? She didn't even like it.

Padma heard her sigh, but had finished with her homework already and was heading back to the Ravenclaw common room. She ran into Harry who held a large amount of hand written notes in his hand, which he'd been taking from "Ways With Words: Internationally Renowned Witch's Guide to Foreign Tongues" book. "Sorry," she murmured as she helped him pick up his notes. "Chinese? What class is this for? Muggle Studies?"

"Erm- no….not exactly… I er-"

"So you're just learning it on your own then?"

"Er- yeah…Always had an interest in foreign languages…"

"Right… I forgot you can speak parseltongue."

"Yeah."

She handed the documents back to him. As she passed by him, she whispered, "She speaks Mandarin."

Harry's face flushed as he looked down at the paper on top of his pile. It read: Find out what dialect she speaks. Padma knew now. He was mortified.


	4. Lychee Lover

The next night, Cho was sitting in the same chair in the very same study room with more homework. This time, she brought with her some candy in her handbag. She knew food wasn't really allowed per-se in the study lounge, but many of the students blatantly disregarded the rule so she figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal. It was her sixth year now and she could care less if a snot-nosed prefect was going to give her grief about eating candy that was essential to her staying awake in order to finish studying for class!

She pulled out some lychee flavored jellies and sucked the juice from the lid, careful not to spill or be too loud. Roger Davies, the Quidditch captain for Ravenclaw was sitting at a table opposite from her and looked up to see her licking the lid after swallowing the cognac jelly. 

Without a second going by, Roger sat next to her. "What's that you've got there?"

"Just some candies from Taiwan, why?" she asked.

"Taiwan you say? So they're muggle candy then?"

She nodded and slurped on another candy. "You want to try one?"

"What flavor are they?"

"Lychee."

"What's that?"

"A fruit from Taiwan…"

"Er…um…no thanks," he declined.

She shrugged and continued with her studies. Roger made no move to go back to his desk. Why wouldn't he just leave her alone?

"You want to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow? They've got _real_ candy there," he offered.

She declined. He didn't move a centimeter. Before she knew what happened next, Roger was putting his arm around her. What did he think he was doing? "Stop that."

"Hey, we've been in Quidditch together for such a long time now…We make a great team. I thought maybe you'd like to spend a little more time with me outside of that."

"I think we all-_together_- make a great team, but I'd like to keep it just that- teammates…OK?" She looked him straight in the eye.

Defeated, he nodded, withdrawing his arm and went back to his books.

She sighed quietly, wishing there was someone she could talk to. 

Harry had been all the while sitting in a corner near the door with Ron and Hermione. He hadn't been exactly staring at her, but he had witnessed the confrontation with Roger. He wanted to go over to her, but he didn't want to get shot down like Roger had. If only he could do something to impress her. 

"All right," he thought to himself, "I've been looking over these phrases in Mandarin…" He'd been accused of being the Heir of Slytherin and nearly lost all his friends along with his dignity. "What do I have to loose?" 

Courageously, he got up from his chair and walked over to her. He cleared his throat. 

A/N: So should I continue?  
Aensland, この話は中国女性の話だ。アジア人の女性しか見ないで、他のいい女性を見逃すよね。  
Basically, I told him- this is a fic about a Chinese girl. If you only look at Asian girls, you overlook some other really nice girls, don't you think?  
  



	5. Kun4 Jiong3 Embarrassment

Ron turned to Hermione, gobsmacked. "What in the world does he think he's doing?"

            Hermione was speechless too. She stared as Harry approached Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker. "I have no idea," she told Ron.

Harry cleared his throat as he approached the desk where Cho sat studying. She looked up at him. Before he lost his nerve, he said to her, "我覺得你恨飄揚." (I think you hate fly.)

            "飛行馬?" (Fly-_ing_?) she corrected. "我喜歡飛行," (I like flying) she added, giggling.

            He had no idea what she said, so he raised an eyebrow. He had meant to say 'I think you're very pretty', but he said, 'I think you hate flying' instead. 

            She knew what he meant to say and thought it was so cute that he tried to speak Chinese to her. "Sit down," she offered him.

            "Er- thanks…" He still had no idea what was going on, but was proud that he had had the courage to speak to her in a complete sentence.

            "So you're learning Chinese?" 

            "Yeah," he gulped.

Cho was intrigued. She knew the story of Harry Potter as well as everyone else in the wizarding world, but she didn't really _know_ him personally. He was very shy just like she was. And he was also very cute… "I think it would be hard to learn. Do you want some help?"

Harry's heart was throbbing in his throat.

"Poor Harry," Hermione sighed as she and Ron looked on. "He's making a complete fool of himself."

            "I wouldn't say that, Hermione," Ron contradicted, "Not like he tried to conjure flowers from his wand or anything."

            "Well if Harry did that, it probably would work out just find, but if _you_ tried it, you'd probably blow something up!" Hermione's attention was now focused on Ron rather than Harry.

            "You have me confused with someone else!" Ron insisted.

            "Prove it!" Hermione demanded.

            Ron whipped out his wand.

            Hermione's eyes widened, "No, I changed my mind, don't prove it!" She was reminded of the time during their second year when his broken wand had caused himself to eat slugs.

            But that had been three years ago and he'd improved much since then (especially since he had a fixed wand). 

"Flora Appārēre!" he exclaimed, in perfect accented tone, thanks to all the studying he had done with Hermione over the past four years. A beautifully coloured bouquet materialized in Hermione's arms. She was blushing conspicuously and Ron beamed, thoroughly proud of himself. 

Just as Harry was about to say he'd really love her to tutor him Chinese, Cho exclaimed, "Look! Oh, isn't that sweet!" She pointed over to Ron and Hermione. 

            Harry smirked, "Wonder how long it took him to figure out he fancies her."

            Cho turned back to face Harry when he said 'fancies her'. She smiled at him. "You know what you really said to me when you came over here?"

            "That I think you're pretty?" He almost regretted saying the words aloud when the entire study room fell silent.

            "Well, that's not exactly what you said…" She told him what he really said.

            Harry had never been so embarrassed in his life. First he made a bleeding idiot of himself trying to speak Chinese and then he actually told her in English in front of everyone in the study room. He looked around, to see all eyes on him. "I'm sorry…" He got up from the chair and left the study room.

            Cho made a move to stop him from leaving, but it had been too late. She was mad at herself for telling him that… She felt bad that he had plucked up all that courage just to talk to her and she had basically cast him off like some blighter. 

A/N: next chapter- shippiness, I promise! finally hehehe…


	6. Zui4 Xian1 De Ke4 First Lesson

"Harry- wait-!" Cho ran after him into the hallway.

            He turned around, barely able to look into her eyes without feeling the heat rise in his face. "I'm sorry," he repeated.

            "It's OK, Harry. I don't see why you should be sorry. I'm the one who made you look foolish…" Cho insisted. She really felt guilty about correcting his pronunciation. "You still want to learn Chinese, right?"

            Harry nodded. "Only if it's not too much trouble… I know you're taking advanced courses, so if you don't have time, I understand."

            She smiled. "I don't mind." She could see he wanted to say something, but he couldn't. She thought it was cute, but also kind of strange seeing as how he was always facing sudden death. He could talk-down Slytherins like Malfoy, but he couldn't talk to her. "Do you want to um…go somewhere less crowded to start a lesson?"

            He swallowed before agreeing, "Yeah." He followed her down the hallway and down a stairway to where a far less used study room was- near the Slytherin common room. Harry remembered it was where Percy and his girlfriend Penelope would go to 'study'.  Now he was really nervous. 

            They sat down together and he noticed the candy she had in her bag. "What's that?" he asked.

            Seeing as how Roger hadn't reacted so positively when she told him, she simply said, "Candy… Try some."

            Harry held the small cup in his hand trying to peel the lid open. He couldn't get it open and he felt like such a twit; unable to open candy.

            Cho smiled and took one out for herself to show him. She lifted the cup to her lips and tore the lid open with her teeth, sucking the juice so it wouldn't spill. He mimicked her. "It's good," he affirmed. She smiled even broader and licked her bottom lip to get the rest of the juice off after consuming the lychee jelly. 

            Harry couldn't believe he was actually in a room alone with Cho. Well, they weren't _exactly_ alone. There were a few students sitting sparsely apart in various chairs a few meters away, but he was still amazed. He cleared his throat, unintentionally rupturing their thoughts. They looked away from each other and he realized he hadn't brought his bag let alone a quill. He'd left his belongings in the other study room with Ron and Hermione. Should he just leave Cho there? "I forgot my notes and quill," he said in a hasty voice.

            "That's all right," she told him, not wanting him to run off. "You can borrow mine." She pulled out her quill and ink along with a roll of parchment.

            "Thanks." 

            "So where should we start?" she wondered.

            Harry shrugged. He really should have brought that book…

            "How about tones?"

            "Sure."

            "Well, there are four different tones in Mandarin."

            "I've read about them."

            She smirked, "But you haven't _heard_ them, have you?"

            He shook his head. 

            "All right… Face me. Listen and watch carefully. The first tone is high: shī. The second tone is like when you ask a question: shí. The third tone is the hardest. It goes down and then up again: shĭ. And the fourth tone is like when you're mad: shì! OK, why don't you try it with me this time?"

            Harry hadn't been really listening to what she was saying, but how her lips moved as she explained each tone. He really wanted to kiss her. He tried to say each tone, but he wasn't exactly skilful. 

She giggled, but not _at_ him, just giggling because he was trying so hard and it was so cute. With all the S's in parseltongue, she would have thought he'd get 'shi' down without any trouble. "Try謝謝, it means 'thanks'."

"Xie-xie."

"You have to emphasize the first one more; _xiè_-xie, 謝謝."

"XIE-xie."

"Almost. 謝謝."

"Xiè-xie." 

"Good, you got it."

"Xiè xie," he said once again.

"不客氣," she told him.

"Huh?" he questioned, not understanding.

"Oh, that means 'no problem', like, 'you're welcome'," she explained.

A/N: Thanks for everyone's reviews. It means a lot to me to know that you've been reading and I also like to know what people think of the story. Suggestions? Comments? 


	7. Improvement

In just a few months, Harry had made such an improvement in Chinese. He had a knack for memorizing words and soon, he could speak basic sentences without too much trouble. Since he was getting good at speaking, she thought she'd try to teach him basic reading skills, but she wasn't sure how to go about it.

"I thought we'd begin with bopomofo today."

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's what they teach in school in Taiwan when kids start to read." She took out a parchment and scratched: ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄉㄊㄋㄌㄍㄎㄏ  
ㄐㄑㄒㄓㄔㄕㄖㄗㄘㄙ  
ㄧㄨㄩㄚㄛㄜㄝㄞㄟㄠㄡ  
ㄢㄣㄤㄥㄦ

"That looks so hard!" Harry exclaimed. He hadn't seen that in the book he got from the library. It kind of looked like Japanese.

"I think this can help with your pronunciation too," she said. 

"But you don't write like that, do you?" Harry scratched onto the parchment. I thought you wrote like…this-" He scratched 你 onto the parchment. "—for _you_. And this-" He scratched 我 next to it. "—for _I _or _me_."

Cho was impressed that he had already began studying the complex written language on his own. Maybe the bopomofo was unnecessary for him. "Well, you don't have to memorize them then. You can just learn the regular characters by pinyin."

Harry smiled, "Whatever you think is best."

She taught him how to write things like: Hi, my name is Harry. What's your name? It's nice to meet you. How are you? I understand. I don't understand. I like___. I don't like___. I like to do___. Would you like to____. How about____. May I___. 

"I think that's so much for today."

Harry never wanted the lessons to end, but she looked tired. "Yeah, it's getting late, isn't it?" He packed up his things. "Thanks a lot."

"Say it in Chinese, Harry," she commanded like a real teacher.

He cleared is throat. "Erm, all right- 我知道今天晚上你…你很忙所以謝謝." (I know you're really busy tonight….so…thanks.)

She beamed, "不謝." (No problem.) She waved to him as he left, so proud of her student.

Harry walked back to the Gryffindor common room with a spring in his step. He was so thrilled that Cho was proud of him. During the first few lessons he had been so nervous about messing up and mispronouncing stuff that he psyched himself out of actually pronouncing words correctly. Finally he got over his nervousness and let her teach him easily. Many times she would make him say a word over and over, correcting the tones, which made him feel stupid, but he knew she hadn't been trying to be mean about it. She just wanted him to get it right.

He had been swotting Chinese so hard that he didn't even obsess over Cho like he used to. He was thoroughly glad of that change because not having a crush on her made him like her more as a person. 

He felt he really owed her for teaching him. What should he do to make it up to her? He pondered this as he entered the common room. He spied Ron's arm dangling behind the couch where he sat next to Hermione. Harry smirked, thinking to himself, 'Just put your bloody arm around her…' He wanted to go over and tell his friends how much he'd learned today, but he felt it best to leave them to their own. Instead, he went up to his room and practiced writing characters.

Soon it was eleven and Ron still hadn't come up to bed. After finishing all his regular homework, he decided to write a note to Cho.

"Dear Cho,  
I have a confession to make. I started learning Chinese to impress you. I know that's not a good reason to learn another language, but I really like you. I think you're a nice person with a beautiful mind. Words can't express how much I've enjoyed the time we've spent together.   
  
You're under no obligation to reply to this letter or even speak to me after this, but I felt you needed to know the truth. Please don't hate me for this.  
Harry"

He sighed. How would he ever be able to tell her this…


	8. Invitation from Harry

Cho was unbelievably overjoyed when Padma gave her a note that Harry had written her. 

"He gave it to me during class." Padma said to her while they took a break in the Ravenclaw common room between classes. She handed the note over to Cho. "You have NO IDEA how hard it was for me to resist reading this!" she insisted. 

Cho smiled wider. "Thanks."

Padma folded her arms saying, "You better tell me what it says later!"

"I will. I will," Cho replied. Padma didn't budge. "I _will_," she assured her. Padma accepted this and went to her room to freshen up before going back to class.

Once she was sure no one else was around, she took out the carefully folded piece of parchment and read Harry's letter.

"Dear Cho" it started. Her heart was fluttering and she didn't know why. Did she think of Harry as more than a friend? No…

"以後晚飯明天晚上... 7:30, 這麼洋? 請妳見我在 the astronomy tower 嗎?  
我想說妳 something. 好不好? Harry" (Supper after tomorrow night…7:30, how is that? Ask you can see me at the astronomy tower? I want to tell you something, is that OK?)

Besides the obvious bad grammar, she understood what he meant and was curious as to what he had in store. She wrote him back right away and gave the note to Padma.

"Can I read it?" Padma begged, "Pleeeeeaaaassssssseee."

"You have to give it to him when you see him next hour," Cho negotiated.

"All right, all right," Padma said in a shirty voice. "Can I read it?"

"Sure." Cho handed the note she wrote to Harry over to Padma.

"Hey Harry," her note read, "明天晚上7:30見!"

Padma pouted, "I can't read this!" 

Cho smiled victoriously, "I know."

"Well, that's not fair! You have to tell me!! You promised!"

"I know, I know," Cho replied, walking towards the exit of the Ravenclaw common room. "I'll tell you…" Right before she exited she said, "After I meet with Harry tomorrow night…"

Padma chased after her down the staircase. "Hey! Wait up! You can't just leave me like that!"

Cho hummed to herself, happily as she bounced to her least favourite class- Potions. She didn't mind at all that she had that class next. She could only think about meeting up with Harry tomorrow night in the astronomy tower after supper and wondering what he wanted to tell her.

Padma finally caught up to her, but her class was on the other side of the school and started in five minutes. "Well, you have to tell me."

"I will, I will. You're going to be late," she observed, sounding a little motherly to her younger friend.

"All right _mom_." Padma held up the note saying, "You owe me!" and rushed off to class.

Cho never envied Padma more than she did now. She wished she had class with Harry. 

What was she thinking? Why was she wishing she had class with Harry? That would mean she'd be a year behind in her classes and have two more years at Hogwarts instead of one. She was crazy. 

All throughout Potions, she was daydreaming. She couldn't help it. She rested her chin in her hand. It seemed like it had been forever since she actually had a good daydream. This time it wasn't being able to say goodbye to Cedric and thank him for being her friend, but about hope. She had hope in herself and her future. For some reason Harry gave her hope. She smiled.

"Miss Chang?" It was Professor Snape's voice. "Miss Chang!"

She blinked a few times while the Hufflepuff girl sitting next to her kicked her in the ankle. "Ah, oh, um… Sorry Professor?"

"20 points from Ravenclaw for Miss Chang's inability to pay _attention_ in my class," Snape hissed. 

Oddly, Cho was more embarrassed that everyone was staring at her than angry that points had been taken from her house. She wondered why that was.

A/N: So does he tell her? If so, how will she react? ahh the possibilities!   
Can you wait? bwhahahaha!


	9. Ming Tian Wanshang Tomorrow Night

It was the beginning of December and Harry had been in the astronomy tower since a quarter after seven and it was now 7:45. He felt a sick feeling in his stomach that she wasn't going to come. He paced around for a bit because of the cold and then looked through the telescope wishing for a moment he could be out there with the stars instead of waiting around in a high tower for someone he really fancied who probably didn't even think of him like that let alone fancy him. He wished he hadn't had a crush on her to begin with. He sat on the cold stone floor near the window and let a sigh escape his lips.

The soft sound of ruffling robes caught his attention and he looked up to see the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts standing in front of him. She clutched a book to her chest which he noticed was an astronomy book.

It seemed for a moment that neither of them could speak.

She approached him and he took a step towards her. She blinked and he shifted his glasses. He was only a seven or ten centimetres taller than her, but he wasn't lanky as he used to be. Quidditch had _definitely_ done him right.

"Hi," he said at last, breaking their impeding silence.  
"Hi," she replied.

Another moment or so of silence ensued. He showed her what he brought with him. "I wanted to thank you for taking the time to tutor me Chinese, so I want you to have this."

"What is it?" She took the item from his hand.

"It's a kind of muggle camera that lets you see the pictures right away like the wizard ones, only the film isn't that great and all the pictures come out bad…And the pictures don't move or anything…" He tried to apologize for the gift. It wasn't as if he had much time to go shopping during the summer with the Dursley's breathing down his neck.

"Oh, I think I've seen something like this when I was on vacation a few years ago." She examined the camera.

Great, she not only thought it was a shoddy gift, but she thought it was old too.

"Wicked," she murmured. "Let's try it out!"

First, she held the camera out in front of her, pulling Harry next to her with her left arm. "Smile!" They both smiled. "OK, on the count of three…三, 二, 一," she counted down and then snapped the picture. "Let's do one more just in case that didn't come out…" They took another picture and then Harry stole the camera back from her.

She chased after him and he snapped a picture of her. "Hey!" she cried.

She cornered him and poked him in the side to grab her camera back and took pictures of him pretending to be angry. She laughed and he tickled her to get the camera. 

When he looked at some of the pictures, he made a disgusted face. "Oh, these are awful," he faked. Then he started laughing really hard.

"你笑話我媽?!" (Are you laughing at me?!) she demanded teasingly. She tried to sneak a peak at the pictures he held.

"沒有!" (No!) he answered, swiftly turning away from her so she wouldn't be able to see.

"為什麼你哪麼高薪?" (Why are you so happy then?) She crossed her arms smugly like she had witnessed Hermione do thousands of times. Hermione was really a classy flirt, she thought.

"妳少管閒事!" (None of your business!) he said with his back to her. He flashed her a gleeful, mischievous smile.

"算了, 沒有告訴我!" (Fine, don't tell me then.) She tilted her head upwards lying, "我不在呼!" (I don't care!)

He snapped a picture of her in that smug position which he thought was so incredibly cute. 

"HEY!" she yelled, reaching for the camera.

He dodged her, but let her win. She playfully slapped his arm crying, "討厭!"

Defeated, he turned to her with puppy dog eyes. He didn't understand the last thing she said, but he didn't mind.

She was giggling at the pictures. The film really was pretty bad, but she didn't care. It had been so thoughtful of him to give her the camera. "Thank you for this," she told him. 

They were both sitting next to each other on the cold stone floor. "It's nothing. Just think of it as an early Christmas present or something."

They had been sitting on the chilly floor for a few minutes and the heat from their flirtatious running about the tower had melted into the stone. She shivered and Harry felt this would be the best time of any to slide his right arm around her. She was still looking at the pictures and pretended not to be aware of his encircling arm. When she finished looking at each picture, there wasn't another excuse not to notice the inviting warmth of his arm around her shoulders. 

He had been staring down at the pictures she was leafing through. When her hands stopped shuffling them, he paused before looking up to meet her eyes staring into his.

What did she want? 

He knew what he wanted, but how could he be sure that she felt the same way about him. He hadn't even told her about his real reasoning behind studying Chinese. But here was a chance to…to…

Before he could figure a way out of the situation or analyze it anymore in his mind, she had already made her choice.

A/N: Ahhhhh!!! yay flirtatious shippiness!  
So does she dismiss him and leave? Do they full-on snog? Does someone else come into the tower to find them out? Does Ginny show up and demand to know what's going on? Does the tower fall apart from a winter thunderstorm?   
  



	10. Goodness

A/N foreboding title, eh? ::grins:: I'm going to delay it as long as possible just to torment you!

They sat on the cold stone floor terribly close to one another and Harry told her it was his Christmas present for her. She couldn't find any words to express what she was feeling so she contented herself with looking through the pictures.

A picture of Harry making silly faces and sticking out his tongue to the camera made her giggle. The pictures he took of her were awful. She couldn't bare to look at them, but her foolishness had to be chuckled at. She felt his arm around her, but she couldn't acknowledge it yet. She didn't even know that she had shivered until she felt the warmth of his arm around her shoulders. 

Feigning ignorance of his encircling arm, she got to the last picture. It was the second picture from the camera with the two of them; their arms around each other, blushing cheeks from the draft in the tower. They looked so happy…so…perfect together. She looked up and found his eyes. Doubts that had previously been concerning her, especially about her mother were replaced by the orb of goodness that was Harry Potter. There was no one else that was as good as him. As simple and small as the word good appeared to be, she could think of no other word to describe him so perfectly.

He was good. He would be good for her.

She knew how he felt about her just as everyone else in their school had known about his crush on her since forever. She knew she would not fail if she kissed him.

Cho slowly reached up and removed Harry's glasses. Her eyes noticed the scar on his forehead when a draft blew his bangs back. Setting the glasses on the floor, she shifted her position so she could stretch up and lightly kiss the lighting bolt. 

Energy shot through him when she kissed it and she felt the heat on her lips. 

She had come this far… 

He was a bundle of nerves, barely able to move. 

Was this his first kiss too? She wondered. Well, it wasn't as if she knew what to do, but she'd seen enough Louis Koo movies to know how it was supposed to go. Her lips parted to take in a breath and then their lips met in a brief, chaste kiss.

Stunned, he finally loosened up a bit and his nerves relaxed. "Thank you," he said, sounding rather foolish.

She smiled at his silly, jovial expression. She rose from her sitting position and he mimicked her. "You're staying over the Christmas holiday, right?" It was late and they had classes tomorrow. Not that either of them would truly be able to sleep.

"Yeah," he exhaled, not able to say much else. Was she his girlfriend? He wanted to ask to be sure. "Will you be?"

"I'd like to very much," she told him.

He wished it had been the answer to the question he didn't have the guts to ask her. "I'd like you to too." 

They started walking down the moving stairways and he slipped his hand into hers. He walked her all the way to the entrance of the Ravenclaw rooms. 

She turned to face him before saying the magic words to enter. She felt stupid to ask, but queried despite herself, "So do I get to call you my boyfriend now?" 

Harry's eyes widened. "Yeah," he said almost too quickly. "Er- if you want me to be…that is." He felt like such a twit.

"All right," she replied, grinning.

He kissed her once more on the lips saying, "Good night."

She blushed, "Good night," and slipped through the portrait hole while he made his way back to the Gryffindor side.

A/N: And now the polls officially open for whether I should keep this a PG fic or raise the bar to PG13.  
vote, vote away my friends, fellow fic writers, and fic readers!  
PG? PG-13? PG-14? 

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la- ttttpppthhhhh… just because Cho is Taiwanese living in Britain doesn't mean she doesn't know Louis Koo! Duh he's Cantonese from Hong Kong...but come on... aiya... 

Anywayz, u have no excuse not to review after reading. Just reading and not reviewing, that's not very nice. Don't you want to tell the writer that you read even if you thought it sucked?

I appreciate all your comments! I will have new chapters up soon! yay!

Just press this button here¬


	11. You Snog Some,

Days, weeks went by like a dream. Harry and Cho had officially become an item, but didn't even notice or care about anything besides each other. 

And they *did* get to see a lot of each other…

It was just before classes resumed for second term in January when Harry and Cho sat across from each other in an abandoned study room. 

            "Rictusempra!" Harry commanded, pointing his wand at Cho.

            "AAAhahahahahaa," Cho laughed uncontrollably in response to his tickling spell. "That's-hahaha- Not- ahhaha- FAIR!-hahahaa!"

            She wasn't able to get him back because of the spell, but she _would_ get him back and when she did, he had better watch out! 

            "Ex-," she tried to say, still laughing, "Ex-Expelliarmus!"

            Harry's wand flew out of his hand and her laughing stopped. 

            "I think my face is worn out from all the laughing," she told him, catching her breath.

            He chuckled, picking up his wand and returning next to where she collapsed into a chair. "Aww…so sorry…" he kidded, leaning in to kiss her on the lips.

            "Still going to get you back for that, you prat!" she giggled.

            "I only did it because you put those Ton-Tongue Toffees in my lunch!"

            "I forgot about that…" Cho giggled. "But you started it!"

            "Did not!"

            "Did too!"

            He always let her win.

            "It's a good thing your tongue is back to normal size though," she smiled slyly. He grinned and kissed her again, this time with his tongue carefully. She felt a blush rise in her cheeks, but she wasn't embarrassed. She had never felt so carefree than when she was with him. 

            So many emotions were passing between them they soon they felt light-headed (which was mostly for lack of oxygen than anything else) and had to pull away. When they broke away to breath, the air between them was charged with an unearthly surge of eager sensations. Cho felt more attracted to him than she had ever felt before and wondered why she had waited so long to kiss him.

            As the two of them went back to kissing, Harry's best friends walked in to the study room. Hermione entered first, unknowing that two people were snogging, but Ron followed on her heels and pulled her back by grabbing her arm. "What?" she demanded.

            He whispered in her ear, "Erm-Harry's- a bit preoccupied…" Her eyes widened as she took in the scene. "Maybe we should go um- somewhere a little less crowded.

            Hermione just nodded, still looking at the pair, in complete shock. 

            "Come on…" Ron pleaded, "Before they see us." He didn't want to embarrass their best friend. He tugged on her arm.

            She finally turned around saying, "Is that Cho?"

            Cho broke away from Harry at the sound of her name. "Oh my-" she gasped.

            "Sorry…" Hermione quickly apologized. "We were just going…" She took Ron's arm and pulled him out of the room.

            "Oh how embarrassing…" Cho was murmuring into her knees as she bent over, burying her face in her hands.

            Harry rubbed her back and she straightened up, facing him. "Aren't you completely mortified? They are your best friends!"

            "Kind of embarrassed…but not really…"

            She was confused. "How's that?"

            "Well…I mean, they already knew about us before. Plus, it's not as if I haven't walked in on that lot snogging before."

            "Ron and Hermione?" She was visibly surprised. "But they fight all the time. I thought you were the only sane one of the group."

            Harry smiled. "Probably am."

Just as suddenly as waking up from a dream, everything changed.


End file.
